FEB 20, 2025 | NEWS | By Lorelei Smillie
Community organizer and powerful speaker Maryah Lauer has gained recognition in the Colorado Springs community through her grassroots efforts to reduce police spending and violence. Now, she is running for District 3 city council.
“I’m hoping that people will be drawn to the fact that I am not a politician,” said Lauer.
Her personal Instagram bio reads, “Redhead always ready to rage against capitalism.” Lauer is running as unaffiliated but calls herself a democratic socialist and is currently endorsed by the Colorado Springs chapter of the DSA.
“I am not trying to cater to anyone, and I’m not trying to do what I think will make me elected,” Lauer said. “Even if people disagree with me on some of my politics, I think that they will be able to know that they can at least trust my word.”
Lauer is one of five candidates currently running to fill District 3’s city council seat, representing downtown Colorado Springs and the area, including Colorado College.
Other candidates include Brandy Williams, who served on city council from 2011 to 2013, Richard Gillit, a small business owner who serves on several local committees, Gregory Thornton, a member of the Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Services Citizen Advisory Board with a background in financial services, and Christopher Metzgar, a stripper, advocate for legal sex work and former Marine.
Lauer has gained popularity at Colorado College due to her successful management of the grassroots campaign to defeat local ballot initiative 2A in 2023, according to several students. The initiative proposed using taxpayer funds to build a new training facility for the police department.
Ady Bolinger ‘26, the student director of CC Votes, said that she’s “heard her name.”
“There’s been some conversation around her in CC Votes as we’re discussing city council candidate forums,” said Bolinger.
One of Lauer’s primary issues is housing. She views housing as a public safety issue, explaining that a lack of safe and affordable housing inevitably leads to more crime.
“We have a housing and cost of living crisis here in the Springs, and we need to implement a Housing First policy. I think it’s pretty absurd that we expect people to be able to hold on to a job or deal with substance abuse issues or mental health problems when they are unhoused. We need to be looking for solutions that are both compassionate and cost-effective,” said Lauer.
Lauer’s ideas on policing and housing policy stray a bit further left from the politics that typically dominate the city. The larger area of El Paso County is home to 252,409 unaffiliated registered voters, who make up over 50% of the voting population.
To many students, however, Lauer’s ideas are new and necessary.
“With much of the city council being bought out by pro-cop, anti-unhoused luxury real estate developers, Maryah would bring much-needed governance that centers real solutions to real problems,” said Tim Smith ‘25.
Lauer’s background is in community organizing for climate justice, but recently she’s been working as a landscaper in order to pay the bills. She hopes her professional experience will convey a sense of solidarity with the residents of Colorado Springs.
“City Council itself is completely inaccessible to working class people, both because the pay is abysmal and also the regular meetings are occurring at times during typical work days, so it means a lot of people can’t actually have any kind of meaningful say in the way our city government is being run,” said Lauer.
Some students have expressed a sense of fatigue after the national election.
Asa Mizock ‘25 notes that he did hear that the city council elections were coming up but isn’t excited about a particular candidate.
“I went to the grocery store and heard someone asking people ‘Hey, are you registered to vote?’ and I just couldn’t deal with it. I evaded him,” said Mizock, laughing.
The city council race doesn’t get as much attention as national elections among students: it’s on a different date, and candidates often have less name recognition with younger voters.
“I knew that some kind of election was coming up, but I wasn’t sure which one, specifically. I honestly do feel more encouraged to vote at the local level after the national election, it feels more important now than it ever did,” said Sacha Levine ‘24 when asked if they knew that city council elections were coming up.
On the phone, Lauer’s voice is full of energy and excitement.
“I think one of the problems that we are currently reckoning with is that there hasn’t been the kind of deep investment in local politics that we’ve needed for decades at this point. Federal and national politics are more visible… but local politics are really the things that actually touch our personal lives the most,” said Lauer.
CC students’ general lack of engagement with issues in the Springs doesn’t dissuade Lauer, who spent one long afternoon in the Worner Campus Center collecting signatures for her campaign.
“I’m going to be there serving my community in the best way that I know how, and that is always going to be my guiding star,” said Lauer.